R v Hepburn (Alex) [2020] EWCA Crim 820

“The case was concerned with a rape trial that included evidence about a game of sexual conquest, in which a group of professional cricketers playing for one of the leading teams in English county cricket competed with each other to see how many women they could sleep with over a 6-month period. The game was to be played out and the scores recorded on Whatsapp. It prompted the Court of Appeal to consider a series of separate but related concepts within the Bad Character provisions including evidence to do with the facts of the offence; important explanatory evidence; evidence of an important matter in issue between the prosecution and the defence; material whose prejudicial effect outweighs its probative value; as well as related issues such as the tenor of cross-examination by prosecution counsel and a trial judge’s warnings to the jury about evidence of a particularly scandalous nature …”

ADDED Tuesday 17th November 2020